Based on the premise that the true Home of the Groove, at least on the North American landmass, is the irreplaceable musical and cultural nexus, New Orleans, Louisiana and environs, this audioblog features rare, hard to find, often forgotten, vintage New Orleans-related R&B and funk records with commentary. Some general knowledge of N.O. music is helpful here, but not required to get your groove on.

About Me

I currently host a weekly show, "Funkify Your Life", on KRVS 88.7 FM in Lafayette which includes music covered on HOTG and more. You can listen-in live Thursdays at 1:00 PM or to the rebroadcast Fridays at 9:00 PM, or stream shows on demand and see playlists at the station website under the Programs tab. I am a former resident of Memphis, TN, where I did a weekly radio show called "New Orleans: Under the Influence" from 1988 to 2004 on WEVL 89.9 FM. I've been collecting and researching this kind of music (& others) even longer.

HOTG Heads Up

Individual audio files are accessible for a limited time after posting. Link to access audio will be on the song title. No link? Audio's outa here*.

When you hit a song link, a player streams it in a separate window. For other listening options, right click on the player when it comes up.

Note: Audio files on this blog are not high resolution (usually 128k) and are posted for reference purposes only. Please do not link directly to them. Use caution if booty shaking while operating vehicles or heavy machinery. Whenever possible, please buy music by these artists!!!
*HEADS UP: If the audio is no longer available here, hit the affiliated site, HOTG Internet Radio, a fully licensed webcast streaming a huge playlist of songs from the HOTG Archives. So go on, get down with the get down.
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QUOTES OF NOTE:
"New Orleans is of such key importance to American music because historical factors combined to make it the strongest center of
African musical practice in the United States, and, cliches aside, that practice really did travel up the Mississippi and did
spread overland." - Ned Sublette, from Cuba And Its Music

"I heard a group called Huey Smith & the Clowns, out of New Orleans. Now this is where funk was really created! That's where funk originated....
I couldn't understand how to do it, so this drummer from Huey Smith's band [Hungry Williams] showed me how to play [it]." - Clayton Fillyau,
drummer for Etta James and James Brown, on the origins of the 'James Brown Beat', in The Great Drummers Of R&B, Funk & Soul, interviewed by Jim Payne.

"A lot of those New Orleans drummers would come through, and I got a lot of stuff from those guys....Tenoo [Coleman] was...as funky as any of them.....
I learned some of that funk by listening to Tenoo." - John 'Jabo'Starks, drummer for Bobby Bland and James Brown, to Jim Payne as above.

"At the risk of sounding egotistical, a lot of the broken up stuff that these guys are playing now stems from the stuff that I had started doing." -
Earl Palmer, on his early days drumming with Dave Bartholomew's band, to Jim Payne, as above.

"With funk, it's almost more what you don't play than what you do play. I like those long silences between riffs,
I like the empty spaces. Those empty spaces, when you stop and let the groove wash all over you, make the
difference between fake funk and real funk." -Art Neville in The Brothers Neville

"Thank the good Lord for the funk musicians." -Jon Cleary ("Pin Your Spin")

"Without New Orleans, there would be no America." -Keith Frazier, Rebirth Brass Band, 2005.

"....don't be fooled. This city is deeply wounded. I'd say it's like an amputee
with phantom memory." -David Freedman, WWOZ, post-Katrina.

"If there was no New Orleans, America would just be a bunch of free people dying of boredom."
-Judy Deck, in an e-mail to Chris Rose at the Times-Picayune

"I'm not finished!" - Wardell Quezergue's final comment of the night after accepting the 2008 Best of the Beat
Lifetime Achievement In Music Award from Offbeat

"I discovered New Orleans along the way, and that made a big difference - It loosened me up." - Richie Hayward, the late drummer for Little Feat.

April 01, 2012

TRACKING THE BIG Q FACTOR, PT 4a: More Multi-Label Malaco Sessions

[Note: Audio files for this post have been removed, as is standard procedure here after a certain amount of time.]

I’m not sure how significant it is that I’m posting this on April Fool’s Day. Guess you can be the judge o’ dat!

My ongoing, but increasingly irregular, retrospective on the career of the late maestro, Wardell Quezergue, is on again, having been delayed several times in the last few months for various mainly mundane reasons, but most recently due to my dad’s unexpected health issues. He had a hospitalization that necessitated me going to Memphis for nearly a week. Fortunately, he came through that well is now on the mend; and I’m trying to crank back into gear so we can once again track Big Q in the great indoor wilds of a 1970s mid-Mississippi recording studio.

For Part 4, I’ll be featuring two more batches of singles recorded at Malaco Records’ Jackson, MS. studio during his tenure as an in-house producer and arranger from 1970 to 1973. The artists involved were among the second wave that Big Q and his business partner, Elijah Walker brought in after the initial test-run by the Unemployed and the so-called school bus sessions that quickly followed in the Spring of 1970.

I will be posting these in two segments over the next month or so, starting with releases that appeared on Quezergue and Walker’s short-lived Pelican label, plus several related one-offs. Next time, I’ll get into singles mainly on Malaco’s own labels, plus a few more that came out on Atlantic or Cotillion.

Though I’ve featured quite a few of these 45s on HOTG at various times before; it’s been a few years; and I thought grouping them together might offer more context and a direct feel for the range of Big Q’s productions at Malaco. Songs previously posted will have brief (for me) commentary with links back to the older posts for newly updated background details. Also, please see below* for direct links to the prior parts of this series, if you’ve missed any or all of them. and want to catch-up (minus the audio, sorry to say)..

The Pelican label’s name came from Big Q and Elijah Walker’s company, Pelican Productions, Inc., as it was called when they began their working relationship with Malaco. While I have no specific documentation, I am assuming from the facts discussed previously that most all the Pelican tracks were cut in 1970, not long after King Floyd, Jean Knight, et al had recorded their first sessions at the studio, as discussed in Part 3. It was a highly active period packed with potential, with Big Q rolling session after session down the line, especially once Floyd’s “Groove Me” hit paydirt. Quite likely, the sheer volume of material being committed to tape overwhelmed Tommy Couch, Malaco’s co-owner and man in charge of placing the recordings with companies for release. There were only so many he could work at one time; and the inability to find takers for all the tracks probably led to Pelican and several of the other boutique labels getting off the ground to take on some of the load. This allowed Quezergue and Walker to press up a limited run of records and get them into the hands of DJs around home in hope of something catching on locally and attracting release by a national company. That was the intention, at least.

*Since I first began doing research on Big Q, I had only been aware of four singles on Pelican, and managed to acquire them over the past five years. But I suspected there might be one or two more in the run. For one thing, the record numbering certainly leaves some room for doubt. The first three issues appear to have been 1230, 1231, and 1233, with the other being way out of that sequence at 1920, probably due to its being distrubuted by Atlantic (as we shall see). The R&B Indies discography lists those four with a blank space beside number 1232, which could mean that it simply was not used, or the record with that number was withdrawn or went unissued for some reason, or even that it was released, but in such a small quantity (as a promo only) that a copy has yet to turn up. With no evdence of that 45 existing, I put up a plea on the earlier version of this post for anybody's assistance in tracking down other possible Pelicans.

Last week, Peter Hoogers, who has provided valuable reseach assitance here several times before, sent me scans and audio of another Pelican, surprising in several respects. First off, it wasn't 1232, but an unanticipated 1234, coming right after Larry Hamilton's release discussed below. Secondly, it's surely the most unusual of Wardell's productions while at Malaco, being decidedly not a soul or funk record like all the others, but folk! The artist, shown on the label as "Leather", was a understated male singer finger-picking an acoustic guitar, and probably the guy who wrote both tunes, Robert Greene. The only overt producing/arranging Wardell did was on the strangely titled top side, "Won't Take You Bad", where he added strings behind the singer/guiarist. If I had to pin him down, I'd say "Leather" on that tune was going after the mid-1960s folkie style of Eric Anderson. On the flip side, he attempted to tackle Bob Dylan's talking blues humor of earlier in the 60s - but on neither did he measure up.

Don't ask where Pelican was going with that. Haven't a clue. I would guess that Greene was a walk-in to Malaco willing to pay to cut a record and was obliged, getting 50 or 100 copies as part of the deal - most of which are still in a box in a garage somewhere. So, while the fifth known Peilcan release wasn't, um, quite what we were hoping for, at least we know there was one, and just maybe something else will turn up. If you have an undiscovered Pelican single or run across one, please let us know.

Listening to all of these lesser-known records as a group reveals a diverse range in Big Q’s attempts to fashion songs that had mass appeal, from hybrid funk, to Southern soul, to highly crafted soul-pop. Let’s not forget that his goal was to sell records in the commercial moment, not create art for art’s sake or limited edition collector’s items. Unfortunately, it becomes clear that not all of the singers Wardell produced records on were capable of performing up to the level required; and even the truly gifted singers he got to work with didn’t crack the charts. Ultimately, it can be debated whether Malaco was the ideal vehicle for Wardell’s huge talent and mainstream ambitions; but the situation there offered the best opportunity he had at the time, and he made the most of it, even though sustained sales success beyond the hits of Floyd and Knight remained elusive.

DENISE KEEBLE

I don’t know any more about Ms Keeble than I did when I first featured her two known releases back in 2007 and 2008, and can still only assume she was a New Orleans area artist. In general, her recording career seems to have been brief and her vocal talent somewhat limited; but the reason we are still talking about her some 40 years on is that, during her fling in the business, she got to work with Wardell, whose studio expertise upped her game considerably.

“Chain On My Thing” (Byran Babour)Denise Keeble, Pelican 130, 1970

Here’s what I wrote about the track itself back when Ifirst postedthis single:

As with many of Quezergue's Malaco-era arrangements, well-crafted, mutli-instumental rhythm patterns were assigned to each player on the track to bring the song's desired groove and feel to life. While not as idiosyncratic as King Floyd's "Groove Me", this upbeat mover was definitely on the funky side with Vernie Robbins locking in the thrusting, offbeat bass line that meshed perfectly with the tight, springy hits and hesitations James Stroud laid down perfectly in the pocket.

"Chain" has a somewhat varied instrumental impact, though, since it seems the only electric instruments on this track were the bass and subdued keyboard. In a nice touch, Quezergue used a prominent acoustic guitar and a string section to soften and texture the sound, in contrast with Stroud's aggressive beats and the punchy horn accents. Keeble, whose voice reminds me at times of Barbara George, obviously gave the performance her all, but ultimately wasn’t able to step out and own it, or convince anyone to play and push it - a deficit no Big Q arrangement could compensate for.

I still don’t know anything about songwriter Byran (or Bryan, maybe?) Babour, either. Might have been an alias....

“Before It Falls Apart” (J. Broussard, A. Savoy, W. Quezergue)

I still have a soft spot in my head for this catchy piece of over-the-top, cut-and-paste pop experimentation, and stand by this assessment from the earlier post:

"Before It Falls Apart" is the side I prefer, even though I think the song's creative reach exceeded its grasp. Writers Joseph Broussard, Albert Savoy, and Quezergue, the core of the Pelican Productions team, mixed in way more hooky elements than a couple of minutes could effectively hold, resulting in a production curiosity, rather than the danceable, sing-along hit it could have been with some pruning. Listen closely, though, because the busy, intricate arrangement never falters, due to excellent execution by the players; and Keeble's voice sounds somewhat better to my ears, though she hardly had a chance to settle in anywhere.

* * * * *

Quezergue and Walker issued Keeble’s other single under the B.F.W. Records imprint, likely in 1970, also, perhaps so as not to flood the market with Pelican releases. You think? #1101 is the only one I know of.

As I remarked in theearlier post, this song draws obvious comparisons to Jean Knight’s delayed smash, “Mr Big Stuff”. I’m sure all concerned were hoping for as good a track; but, though Wardell and band did their best silk purse stitching, Keeble’s performance again just didn’t measure up. Or, as I phrased it the last time:

Another member of the [Pelican Productions] team, Elliott Small, co-wrote "Love School" with Milton Cottrell; and, while the tune has a pretty funny concept and some of the funky bounce of "Mr. Big Stuff", it pales in comparison. Part of the problem was that Keeble just didn't have the same sassy, stand-out vocal chops to deliver the goods like Ms Knight. But, even if Knight had done it, "Love School" would have been at best a B-side or album cut. Still, Quezergue's signature tight arrangement of interlocking, syncopated parts offered good enough grooving to make the track worth some spins. The predominant, percolating bass line rendered by Vernie Robbins put the emphasis on booty action and still keeps me coming back for more education.

We’ll hear from Mr. Small himself in the second installment of this post, as he had two releases on the Malaco label that Big Q had a hand in.

As for Denise, just when you’re about to count her out, you turn the record over to find this....

“Giving Up”(V. McCoy)The great songwriter and producer/arranger of soul-pop hits,Van McCoy, wrote "Giving Up" for Gladys Knight in 1964. In Quezergue's deft hands, this version outshines McCoy's own production on Knight's original Maxx single. Dramatic and musically sophisticated, the song is just the kind of thing an expansive talent like the Big Q could run with. He issued forth a flowing, lush, well-paced, and rhythmically gripping arrangement that uplifted Denise Keeble's vocals and allowed her to finally show her strengths. Although she held her own on the song, she was nowhere near the league of Gladys Knight. Just imagine what Knight could have done with this version. To listen deeply into this song is to behold and relish Quezergue's gifts in all their glory. So, why, why, why, was it the B-side?

As I also noted on that prior post, Donny Hathaway did aninteresting coverof “Giving Up” around the same time as Keeble’s; and I also recommenda more current takeon this compelling song by the outstanding Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.

Not bad company, Denise.
C. L. BLAST

C. L. Blast’s lone single on Pelican took me the longest to acquire. Finally, last year I bumped into an affordable, if somewhat beat-up copy (as the audio confirms), long having had CD versions of both sides on the 2001 Funky Delicacies/Tuff City compilation Wardell Quezergue’s Funky Funky New Orleans, a good but out of print overview of Big Q’s work during this era.

An outstanding, under-appreciated journeyman soul singer from Birmingham, Aalabama, Blast, whose actual name was Clarence Lewis, Jr., hooked up with Quezergue and Elijah Walker about mid-career, around 1970, after a brief stop at Stax. He recorded three promising singles at Malaco; but the inability of Tommy Couch to find a receptive label or labels to release two of the records nationally pretty much put a silencer on Blast’s impressive work at the studio. As I’ll discuss, his other 45, which came out on the United label, was also stopped short due to even more unfortunate circumstances.

Outside of Johnny Adams and Irma Thomas, who Wardell worked with only briefly during this period (more on their one-shot records next time), Blast was the best pure singer the producer had the opportunity to work with while at Malaco, and had the best potential to make a strong commercial showing. But that’s not the way things played out.

For more details on the artist, a personal favorite of mine, refer back to myprior postthat first featured the Crestown single he made with Big Q, or see Sir Shambling’sprofile on Blast, which includes a discography.

Unlike the other two singles Blast cut a Malaco, both of his Pelican sides featured songs from Wardell’s writing.team, particularly, Ralph Williams, Joe Broussard, and Carol Washington, who frequently collaborated.

Here on the A-side, we have a strong soul-pop production with a twist, in that Big Q gave “Got To Find Someone” a taste of what made King Floyd’s ”Groove Me” unique, assigning Vernie Robbins a bassline on the verses to reinforce the stylized syncopation of James Stroud’s drumwork, which Wardell designed to mesh with the other instrumental interplay and Blast’s vocal attack. When Floyd’s hesitating, bob-and-weave, hybrid funk song hit the charts and quickly climbed to the top, Wardell lost no time incorporating staggered, nearly mechanical sounding bass patterns into many subsequent tracks he cut on various artists, hoping for a hit by association; but the gimmick worked best on simple songs designed purely to groove, and, even then, the novelty quickly wore off.

In this case, that particular poly-rhythmic approach was applied to a more complex arrangement, where it abutted the driving, doubled-up beat of the chorus. Wardell made it all work surprisingly well together; but the herky-jerky feel of the groove likely scuttled the song’s mainstream aspirations, despite Blast singing the hell out of the lyrics. If the record got airplay anywhere, I suspect New Orleans was the spot; but, even there, demand was not forthcoming.

Once again, it seems to me that the flip side would have made a far stronger leader that might have brought the singer at least one of the hits he so richly deserved but never realized.

With all the essential elements of gritty, unassumingly funky Southern soul, including questionable grammar, this song set aside clever complexity altogether to simply give Blast the opportunity to get back to his gospel roots, dig down and do some joyous raving. After all, he had plenty to flaunt.

Wardell made the song’s standard issue R&B structure a head-sticker by playing up the spring-loaded ascending/descending riff on the verses and establishing the hooky drop-down pattern on the intro, chorus and bridge. His elemental organ work on the track is quite catchy in its own right. At once, the groove is more relaxed and straightforward than what the A-side has to offer, yet eminently more of a rhythmic body mover to boot.

For his part, Blast assumed confident control as soon as he sang the first note, and over the course of the song progressed to full-tilt testifying. Why this guy remained under almost everybody’s radar through the course of a long career is one of the enduring mysteries of the universe.

* * * * *

I have no idea what the sequence was for releasing Blast’s three 45s worth of work at Malaco, so my line-up is arbitrary. But, next, let’s marvel at an even better effort by all concerned that came out only on a very limited edition single that at the time probably got even fewer spins than the Pelican, sad to say.

I first featured these tracks back in 2007; and, actually, I didn’t really write much about them then, choosing to concentrate on the background of this woefully under-appreciated singer. On the other hand, it also could have been that the tracks are so well-rendered, nearly flawless, that I just let them do the talking. What a concept.

This well-chosen top side was written by Blast’s fellow Birmingham soul man, Frederick Knight, with Aaron Varnell. Knight was still a couple of years away from his first national hit, “I”ve Been Lonely For So Long”, which would be released on Stax; but he already had his songwriting chops down stone cold and gave Blast what should have been a winner without question.

For his production, Big Q had the wisdom to use his arranging expertise to bring out the inherent strengths of the song. His secret here was the pacing, choosing a deliberate mid-tempo strut with Stroud creating a deep backbeat pocket (reinforced by claps) to which was added Robbins’ supple, syncopating bass, generating a light, propulsive bounce on the verses and percolating counterpoints on the bridge and chorus. In fact, the bass carries most of the rhythmic complexity of the groove, allowing enough space for Blast to work his emotive vocal magic without having to oversing. That’s tasteful, effective soul-pop of the highest order.

“Love Is Good” (Albert Savoy, Wardell Quezergue)

Equally compelling in its own way, this joint venture by Wardell and staff writer Albert Savoy, is a hard-hitting, rhythmic ride with enough ups, downs, twists and turns to induce whiplash before the fade. Credit the session musicians, whose extremely tight, high caliber ensemble unison playing allowed them to execute the wicked demands of the arrangement without seeming to break a sweat. I said “seeming to”. Believe me, there must have been plenty of dehydration going on in the rehearsals and attempts to achieve this master take.

Blast delivered an utterly killer performance, unfazed by the power of the band, and easily matching the energy decibel for decibel with no indication that he was anywhere near tapped out. This single reveals a master at work, nuanced and emotive as called for on the A-side, and a pure soul powerhouse on the flip, who more than lived up to his explosive stage name.

Either of these tracks were highly qualified to be hits and the fact that no one seemed able to get the man some radio exposure did the greatest of disservice to him and the listening public who certainly could have reveled in this amazing music and talent had it been available.

* * * * *

Blast’s third project with Wardell was also impressive, if more overtly pop-oriented, but never had a chance for a different reason, as it turned out.

The single, “What Can I Do (When My Thrill Is Gone?)” / “I’m In A Daze”, was issued in 1970 on the tiny United label (not to be confused with the big 1950s era Chicago label of the same name, a 1960s one-off label also from Chicago, or the small mid-1970s imprint out of South Carolina). Hal Atkins, a DJ (“on-air personality”) for the New York City area soul station, WWRL AM, set up United through his own Atkins Enterprises, Inc.

Though I can’t find any definite back-up, I am pretty sure he was the same Hal Atkins who spun records at WYLD In New Orleans during the early to mid 1960s and helped Connie LaRocca start and run the local Frisco label there in 1962, even appearing on the first two releases as Al Adams. Their best selling act was Danny White; butWillie West,Porgy Jones, Al Reed, and the Rouzan Sisters also recorded for the label; and Big Q did some producing and arranging for them, as well. So, he and Atkins would have known each other prior to this record.

As Frisco was winding down around 1965, it appears that Atkins briefly moved on to Memphis, working at WLOK, before landing an afternoon slot in the next year or so at WWRL, in a much bigger radio market. He was still on the air there when Blast’s United single came out. I don’t know the particulars of how he came to take on the project, and am not sure anybody does anymore; but the scraps of facts I’ve picked up around the web, mostly from old Billboard articles, indicate that Atkins was also involved with scouting talent and assisting artists in getting signed to labels. For example, he and an associate lobbied to get Kool and the Gang their deal with DeLite Records in 1969. It would appear that he cooked up and funded the United single, the label’s only known release, as a platform to get Blast recognized by bigger fish in the business. In all probability, he did so because Wardell and/or Elijah Walker had contacted him outside of Malaco for help with boosting the singer’s exposure.

With his connections, Atkins’ participation in the production surely seemed a path to the big break Blast needed. So I suspect nobody minded much that Atkins used songs he wrote, or at least credited to him. As the labels indicate, Wardell arranged both sides; but it is very possible that Atkins came down to Jackson when the tracks were cut for some oversight.

Yet, all that really didn’t matter in the grand design, because, later that year, not long after the record was pressed, Hal Atkins passed away, taking with him any hopes of it getting airplay or a national release.

Like I said, this mid-tempo mover has a decidedly pop music feel. For one thing, the drum beats were straighter, though Big Q still cranked up a lot of syncopated energy using the other instruments of this rather large production, and definitely pulled no punches. Bringing in the strongly fuzzed rhythm guitar crunch in the second half of the song and adding other electric guitar fills toward the end, gave a strong rock element to the feel that contrasted with the more uptown sound of the swirling strings; and, while the bass is not as up front in the mix as on the Pelican and Crestown singles, it still contributed much to the underlying power and rhythmic complexity of the track.

The doubled piano ostinato that begins the song and continues throughout as the central riff, picked up here and there by other instruments, has a subtle latin flavor to it that lends the arrangement even further resonance and rhythmic appeal. Overall, Wardell provided a fine ride for Blast’s awesome vocal performance.

Again totally in command, feeding off the internal combustion and building dynamism of the music, Blast strutted his stuff and took some inspirational chances, especially on the transitional section that divides the song’s two halves, where he improvised a swooping melismatic run on just one word, “alright”, and shot out staccato rhythmic variations on the other few available lyrics, then let loose again on the ride-out. Right on, right on, right on.

It took a producer of Big Q’s ability to create arrangements worthy of C. L. Blast and allow him to show what he was capable of. Not that it did him a lot of good at the time. Neither he nor Wardell ever had fortune fully smile on their gifts, pluck them from semi-obscurity, or adequately reward their efforts, for many complicated and ultimately lousy reasons.

“I’m In A Daze”(Hal Atkins, Jr)In the spirit of completeness, I’m including this B-side ballad. With more of a 1960s pop-ish, off-Broadway musical kind of sound, it’s not in the same league as “What Can I Do”, and doesn’t have much going on structurally or lyrically. Yet it inexplicably goes on for over five minutes! Wardell did with it what he could, but there was obviously not much to latch onto.

If there is a saving grace to ”I’m In A Daze”, it’s that Blast sang the hell out of it, squeezing a commendable performance out of an otherwise aimless piece of music . It just goes to show what value a great vocalist can impart to most any run of the mill song, if he cares enough to try.

As much as I enjoy Wardell’s work with his hometown vocalists, I think he could have gone far in the big leagues of the music business producing/arranging for artists such as Blast, who could handle what Big Q wrought when at the top of his game, rather than be overwhelmed by it. But, by choice he stayed close to home and kept his bright light under the proverbial barrel much of the time. Even when he got the chance to shine, as on the Blast projects, his amazing efforts were done in by missed connections, lack of influential contacts, and other variations of bad luck. Such is the artistry and relative tragedy of his story.

LARRY HAMILTON

I first featured Larry Hamilton’s Pelican single exactly four years ago; and you’ll find some details of his inconsistent musical career onthat post. As noted there, he recorded his two known 45s while also working with Wardell’s team as a writer. I don’t have the ultra-rare Ham 101 with his killer composition, “My Mind Keeps Playing Tricks On Me”, on the top side; but I suggest you seek it outon CDor at various spots in Cloud Download Land. It’s a churning, burning piece of upbeat funk and certainly one of Big Q’s strongest productions that, of course, never got the exposure it deserved.

Next time, I’ll get to a couple of the late Mr. Hamilton’s songs cut by others at Malaco. But, for now, consider his other worthy effort for Wardell as featured artist.

Though it starts with some gimmicky, chipmunkish chattering, "Gossip" is no trivial novelty number. It’s more of a minor-key mini-sermon on the evils of behind the back hearsay and rumor mongering, delivered with soulful sincerity by Brother Larry over a hypnotic, undulating groove, and offering yet another slant on Big Q’s production savvy. It’s got almost an understated Afro-beat feel to it, between the primal way it moves and how the horns are arranged. The only thing that briefly snaps us back to US soul territory is the instrumental break about two thirds through the song which shifts to a major key for a Stax-like guitar and horn-driven interlude before resolving back to the minor mode funk that dominates the tune. Out of left field, but somehow it works.

What impresses me about this side is that it really doesn’t sound quite like anything else that Big Q produced at Malaco. While using the same instrumentation, the arrangement’s feel and flavor set it apart .The elemental rhythm track may be key, as it was not overly complicated, and seems to have an organic pulse to it. Drums, guitar, and piano were playing fairly simply, with the bass again being the most involved. Yet it didn’t follow the mechanical “Groove Me” style patterns that Wardell exploited on many of his other experiments in funk. I also sense in the groove whiff of what Dr. John and Harold Battiste had cooked up on the “Gris Gris” album. You could say the team let their New Orleans roots show on this one.

“Keep the News To Yourself”(Larry Hamilton, Elijah Walker)

And speaking of “Groove Me” inspired bass patterns:

..."Keep The News To Yourself"....was a more conventionally structured R&B/soul outing, though it had a bass line inserted into it closely resembling that of King Floyd's "Groove Me", the first big success for Quezergue and the Malaco Groove Assembly Plant that same year. The producer used such offbeat patterns a lot after that, hoping to spark another break-out hit - but it simply didn't work as intended. The number, written by Hamilton, was well-played and performed, but really had nothing fresh to offer either lyrically or musically, and deserved its backing status on the record.

Fashioned as another angle on the gossip theme, the song benefitted both from Hamilton’s strong vocal and Big Q’s horn section arrangement which provided some needed rhythmic counterpoint to keep the mid-tempo pace from plodding. Elijah Walker was credited as co-writer, but, as discussed elsewhere in this series, his contributions to these projects were far more financial and managerial than creative; and his sharing in any royalties from these records was simply a way to insure he got his due. Hope he wasn’t planning to retire on ‘em.

CURTIS JOHNSON

I featured the B-side of Johnson’s Pelican 45 back in 2008; and, to go along with it, I have a summaryon the postof his brief singing and recording career.

As I noted then, this single was the last of the Pelican line; and, while probably recorded in 1970, did not come out until the next year, as the label indicates. Also to be seen on the label are the non-sequential number assigned to the record and the fact that Atlantic distributed it directly. At the time, they were also distributing Malaco’s Chimneyville label through their Cotillion subsidiary, due to their desire to get in on King Floyd’s hit action. But, I have no idea how or why this Pelican single got picked up, nor the reason other of the Pelican offerings did not.

In hazy hindsight, which is where I operate, it is probably too generous to call what Atlantic did with this record distribution. More likely, they simply pressed up some promos, such as mine, and sent them around, and did a limited run of stock copies and called it a day when no DJs immediately began incessantly playing the plug side. In other words, a tax write-off would be the more appropriate term.

Garden variety Southern soul penned by the prolific writing trio of Broussard, Williams and Washington from the Pelican staff, this top side had a punchy arrangement by Wardell, but a rather clunky mid-tempo groove it was unable to rise above. As if to further dampen its impact, the recording of Johnson’s vocal sounds somewhat unfocused and insubstantial. Seems to me his voice was set a bit too low in the mix and in need of some tonal equalization to help it cut through. Even if that had been done though, I think we’d still find Johnson’s singing less than inspiring. Whether to chalk that up to performance anxiety, vocal problems, a poor fit for the song, or all of the above, I don’t know. But of all the Pelican singles to put out through Atlantic, this was certainly not the one.

“Sho-Nuff the Real Thing”(W. Quezergue, A Savoy)

As this side shows, Johnson just didn’t just have a one-time delivery problem on the sessions. He fared worse on the B-side:

....The flip was another matter. I've chosen it as an example of Big Q's penchant for quirky rhythmic experimentation; but "Sho-Nuff The Real Thing" was really not Johnson's best vocal showcase, as he seemed overwhelmed, or maybe unnerved by having to deliver something equivalent to what King Floyd was having success with at the time. Maybe funk really wasn't his thing.

As I've noted previously, Quezergue’s standard operating procedure at Malaco was to pre-record the backing instrumental tracks with the in-house studio band, creating a distinct part for each player. He did this pretty much in his head just prior to the sessions; and it's interesting to hear the results of his obviously mathematical mind at work in these fine-tuned, precisely interacting instrumental and vocal rhythms bouncing back and forth off each other like some little perpetual motion engine. The resulting poly-rhythms may be too calculated to be pure funk – but what else do you call this music?

To answer my own question, I’ve come to call it hybrid funk, a cop-out perhaps; but that’s all I’ve got. “Sho-Nuff” is definitely an energetic hunk of that stuff, requiring more from the vocalist than Johnson was capable of giving, at least that day. Larry Hamilton would have been a better fit. Blast would have killed on it. And, of course, King Floyd could have had his way with the track, too. But it looks like nobody else got a shot at it.

Johnson probably wanted and needed a ballad - something more melodic, perhaps; but that’s not what he got for his last shot at hit-dom. Sir Shambling notes that the singer had a bad taste for the music business and dropped out for good after appearing on Pelican’s swan song(s) - probably a decent gauge that his good judgement, at least, remained intact.

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Stay tuned for Part 4b, which will probably be dropped on you after the upcoming month of festing.